I have already calculated my profit margin in an excel sheet, listing down my selling prices against the cost price, adding in all the discounts I have given them, the free items I have offered them out of goodwill, the penalty fee that I will most likely end up paying and after all that the calculation, the final figure doesn't look good. I am still earning that's for sure but the amount is not a justifiable figure for the time and effort I have put into the project and the stress and anxiety the project has put me through, especially during my reservist, which according to my friends who were with me, was one of the most relaxing one we have ever attended, we were comparing it to staying in a chalet, that's how comfortable it was and I am feeling extremely bitter that the Antoinette's Project had to ruin the whole experience.
My biggest gripe with this project right now is that is feels like it will never end, Mr Antoinette has marked out the problem areas already, so it's just a matter of touching up those problem areas, but the problem with Mr Antoinette is how nit-picky he has suddenly gotten because a some of those areas have already been touched up once, he just can't accept it and is requesting for it to be touched up again, and when those areas are fixed to his standard for approval, he will find new problem areas, thus this whole defect checking becomes a never ending procedure.
This is honestly the worst, all I want is for this project to finally be done so I can move on with my life, so I can stop glancing at my phone every 5 minutes to see if it will vibrate with messages from them or constantly have to tap on my phone to see if there are any Whatsapp messages from them that I missed out, I was a slave to my phone during reservist because of this and have been in this constant state of unease for the past month or so ever since the defect checking started.
But putting the current bane of my existence aside and on to a less stressful topic, I went for my second job interview today at the furniture company and the whole interview just felt so much better than I one I went for yesterday because I knew the company I was applying at and did my research on them before actually applying for their job opening, the 2 interviewers who met me today did have a phone interview with me first and more importantly, I was the one who applied for the job position, a position that I know I am qualified for, and not some random recruitment agency.
The interview itself was alright, I was a little early, so I was offered a cup of tea and then told to walk the grounds to take a look at what the shop had to offer first, I spotted a few items that were quite nice but my one complaint about the selection that they have is everything looks really similar to one another, so even though they have a lot of different pieces, it feels like there isn't a lot of variety.
I was 15 minutes early, so I walked around the showroom for 15 minutes, holding the cup of hot tea they made for me, sipping it every once in a while and wondering if I am making the right choice applying for the position because it honestly is a downgrade from my current position as an Interior Designer, my current job responsibilities will go away and I feel like I will definitely be in a more relaxed state working in this furniture store because what made my current job so stressful is the responsibilities of having to manage multiple sites and sub-cons and clients, whereas in this furniture store, my responsibilities will be the upkeep of the showroom, attending to the customers who walk in and not have to commit to their project for months, reply to some emails every once in a while and most importantly, no project management, which means I won't get disturbed by clients after working hours.
So anyways, after 15 minutes of aimlessly walking around, one of my interviewer invites me to sit down on one of the many dining tables they have on display and we started our interview, there was the usual explaining what my current job is, what my current responsibilities are and then the interviewer ask me to explain my job in detail because he was really interested in how a home renovation actually progresses, so I kept talking and talking and talking and realize I am talking way too much but continued anyway because I was trying to fill the potential silence that will come after I stop and I could see the interviewer was really struggling to stay interested at my yapping, but I eventually did stop and he went on to explain to me the job position, the working hours, the company's history, the job responsibilities and the salary.
$2500 per month is pretty decent for me, I mean compared to what I am making now, which is probably less than $1000 a month, $2500 works, so I shared that I don't mind starting at the amount and the interviewer was surprised at how I was willing to start so low, and I realized I could have asked for more and fucked up, but at that point, I couldn't take it back and tell him I wanted $3000 per month, it would look weird, so I told him that I will start low first, prove myself through my actions and once the company deems me worthy of a pay raise, then we can take it from there.
Once he was done with me, he tells me to wait so he can get his partner over, and the partner comes over and starts talking to me as well, asking me what kind of environment am I expecting to work in, and I really didn't know how to respond to that, I mean the showroom felt pretty chill and relax, so I told her that the current environment of the showroom feels great to me, we then talked more about my current job, I start yapping again and at one point, the partner started to yawn but she managed to stop herself mid-yawn and that was when I knew it was time for me to stop talking, the interview ends after that and I was soon ushered out of the showroom.
I like the environment of the showroom, I like the location of the showroom, the pay is decent, the working hours is from 9am to 6pm, which is pretty average and because it is only a 20 minutes bus ride away from home, I will be able to reach home everyday after work before 7 pm, and I don't have to get up too early to reach the office on time.
But it has been a very long while since I got a job with regular working hours, so I am not sure how well I will take the 9 to 6 lifestyle, if I will eventually get tired of it and go back to Interior Designing for the flexible working hours.
This transition is going to be a lot harder than I thought. The interviewer told me they will update me on Tuesday about the position, I am actually having second thoughts about even accepting the job if they offered it to me because I have worked in my current company for 3 years and have grown a bit of an attachment to it, to the company and my colleagues, not to my clients, although I do really enjoy Interior Designing, which sucks because of the stressful project management aspect that comes with it.
UPDATE:
I just realized the last time I was put in this position of going for multiple job interviews and contemplating to quit, it was right after my reservist in 2018.
At that time the last project I worked on was for Sly Fox and he was a pain at the end of the renovation.
This feels like a repeat of 2018, except this time, instead of Sly Fox, I am dealing with the Antoinette, and I am also fresh out of my reservist.
The only similarity that hasn't happened yet is me deciding not to quit, staying in the company and then getting a message from Sly Fox/Antoinette months later, informing me that something majorly bad has happened at their site and needs my immediate attention that will then take weeks to rectify because my tiler doesn't want to take responsibility.
If I choose to stay and history does repeat itself, I might end up getting a call from the Antoinette months down the road about a potentially major problem.
That time with Sly Fox, the issue came about from my tiler's worker having poor workmanship and doing a shoddy job, this time, the issue also came about from my tiler's worker, the very same one who worked on Sly Fox's project, for poor workmanship and doing a shoddy job. It is the same guy, I feel like history is repeating itself and the only way I can change it is to make the decision to leave my current company and work in the furniture store, to not have to worry about the Antoinette bothering me months from now because if they do,I can simply say...
"Sorry guys, I don't work there anymore, call the company directly."
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